Full Spectrum LED tank pictures

[Nano sapiens]

First ever DIY LED build completed. I must say, that was a lot of 'fiddly-bits'

 

(1) RB & (1) NW in the middle, (2) HVs on either side and (2) OCWs on the outsides (plus a bunch of Stunner Strips). Only had to replace one Stunner strip to make way for the DYI LED strip. Not enough room inside the canopy for the Inventronics power supply, so it's mounted outside. POT mounted on the side. All stainless hardware:

 

 

 

 

Coloration in the tank is very nice. I was concerned about possible light spillage with this small 12g tank, but there none to speak of (just some colorful refraction from the canopy's acrylic legs). Currently set at ~10% on the POT, and in addition to the remaining Stunner Strips, I register about 10 less PAR compared to the previous Stunner only array. Plenty of intensity left to use as I slowly increase over the next few weeks.

 

The only real issue encountered was that two of the OCW connectors wouldn't allow the wire to connect. The fix was to take a micro-screwdriver and force it open to then accept the wire.

 

Thanks to LEDGroupBuy and Ben for helping to make this all work out.

[raidendex]

So what kind of light schedule everyone is using with full spectrums? If you have each color on a sepparate channel which do you bring up first etc?

 

I currently run the following

 

10am - RB and CB start ramping up from 0/255 to 50/255

12pm - RB, CB, DR, T, HV start ramping up from 50/255 in case of first two and 0 in case of others to 160/255

1pm - NW ramps up from 0/255 to 150/255

 

7pm - NW go off

8pm - DR, T, HV go off, RB and CB dim down to 50/255

10pm - All LEDs are off.

 

In all cases all dim up and dim down periods take about 30-45 mins. So all lights are at their max for about 5 hours.

 

I am thinking to lower the initial RB/CB periods to maybe 10-20/255 instead of 50/255, so they don't cause much photosyntethis and are more of moonlight. Other than that I have "actinics" running from 12 to 8 for about 7 hours of full power and all lights from 1 to 7 for around 5 hours of full power.

 

Finally, I am thinking of shifting everything two hours so overall LED activity is somewhat in sync with sunrise / sunset - 8 am to 8 pm.

[gus6464]

 

Where did you get that casing for the light?

[Nano sapiens]

Where did you get that casing for the light?

 

That is the original Cadlights canopy that came with their 12g.

[1.0reef]

First ever DIY LED build completed. I must say, that was a lot of 'fiddly-bits'

 

(1) RB & (1) NW in the middle, (2) HVs on either side and (2) OCWs on the outsides (plus a bunch of Stunner Strips). Only had to replace one Stunner strip to make way for the DYI LED strip. Not enough room inside the canopy for the Inventronics power supply, so it's mounted outside. POT mounted on the side. All stainless hardware:

 

 

 

 

Coloration in the tank is very nice. I was concerned about possible light spillage with this small 12g tank, but there none to speak of (just some colorful refraction from the canopy's acrylic legs). Currently set at ~10% on the POT, and in addition to the remaining Stunner Strips, I register about 10 less PAR compared to the previous Stunner only array. Plenty of intensity left to use as I slowly increase over the next few weeks.

 

The only real issue encountered was that two of the OCW connectors wouldn't allow the wire to connect. The fix was to take a micro-screwdriver and force it open to then accept the wire.

 

Thanks to LEDGroupBuy and Ben for helping to make this all work out.

Wow, Jedi's deathstar is gonna have one hell of a laser party lol

[Nano sapiens]

Wow, Jedi's deathstar is gonna have one hell of a laser party lol

 

One can never have enough lasers

[Milad LEDGroupBuy.com]

First ever DIY LED build completed. I must say, that was a lot of 'fiddly-bits'

 

(1) RB & (1) NW in the middle, (2) HVs on either side and (2) OCWs on the outsides (plus a bunch of Stunner Strips). Only had to replace one Stunner strip to make way for the DYI LED strip. Not enough room inside the canopy for the Inventronics power supply, so it's mounted outside. POT mounted on the side. All stainless hardware:

 

 

 

 

Coloration in the tank is very nice. I was concerned about possible light spillage with this small 12g tank, but there none to speak of (just some colorful refraction from the canopy's acrylic legs). Currently set at ~10% on the POT, and in addition to the remaining Stunner Strips, I register about 10 less PAR compared to the previous Stunner only array. Plenty of intensity left to use as I slowly increase over the next few weeks.

 

The only real issue encountered was that two of the OCW connectors wouldn't allow the wire to connect. The fix was to take a micro-screwdriver and force it open to then accept the wire.

 

Thanks to LEDGroupBuy and Ben for helping to make this all work out.

 

That is a pretty sweet mod! nice job!

[Nano sapiens]

That is a pretty sweet mod! nice job!

 

Thank you, glad you like it. Your solderless LEDs were quite easy to work with. The only soldering I had to do was connecting the three Inventronics wires to the POT.

[kratos1028]

I am trying to redo my led layout for my tank and am having a hard time with it. I have a zoa dominant tank. I read about neutral whites and cool whites but what about whites in the 14k-20k area? Are they any good for corals?

 

Here is my new layout I just made. What do you think? Any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The blues are all RB.

 

[jedimasterben]

Don't touch any white LEDs over 5000K. Otherwise all those pretty zoas that I imagine you paid oodles for will look bland and grey, especially with the shitty ultra cool white chinese phosphors.

[Horerczy]

Don't touch any white LEDs over 5000K. Otherwise all those pretty zoas that I imagine you paid oodles for will look bland and grey, especially with the shitty ultra cool white chinese phosphors.

But they make great cabinet lighting.

[kratos1028]

Don't touch any white LEDs over 5000K. Otherwise all those pretty zoas that I imagine you paid oodles for will look bland and grey, especially with the shitty ultra cool white chinese phosphors.

 

wow, I didn't know that. I have the evergrow fixture. I currently have 6500k in my fixture. SHould I swap them out for 5000k and lower?

[raidendex]

Three months update on my full spectrum tank. Moving pictures below

 

[jedimasterben]

wow, I didn't know that. I have the evergrow fixture. I currently have 6500k in my fixture. SHould I swap them out for 5000k and lower?

You'd have to be pretty good at reflowing to do that properly.

[MontiP]

If I were to add 6 or so LEDs to my current (non DIY) setup, how much would that cost me? I haven't looked into drivers and power supply or anything and certainly have research to do, but I wouldn't mind a ballpark estimate.

[Milad LEDGroupBuy.com]

Three months update on my full spectrum tank. Moving pictures below

 

 

 

amazing setup! What camera you use to record that?

[raidendex]

Thanks. I just use my dslr. Canon T2I with variety of lenses.

[MR.FEESH]

Proud to share my first fish related DIY project, a 9 LED array for my 6 gallon.

 

(4) Royal Blue: 450-465 nm

(2) Neutral White: 3,700-5,000K

(1) Blue: 465-485 nm

(1) Deep Red: 660 nm

(1) "UV": 410-420 nm

 

Tried to adjust WB in post processing to match what it looks like to my eyes. For whatever reason it's fairly purple, not as much as the pic shows, but a decent amount, and it's actually a rather pleasant blend to view in person.

 

[Nach]

Hi guys!

I am new to your forum.

I am an french aquarist.

I want to make a LED ramp for my aquarium with dimensions 100cmx50cmx50 with 47cm water depth.

I'm a bit lost with all these LED. I'd like to go on 1W LED as the performance is better.

What do you recommend ?

Maybe it I must open a special post for my project ?

I keep mainly SPS.

Excuse me for my english: s

Thank you !

N.

[jedimasterben]

The performance is really not better on 1 watt LEDs, especially considering that you will not find anything other than cheaply made Chinese garbage. Go with a quality brand (Cree, Luxeon), run them at medium power, the standard '3 watts', and don't give the knockoffs even a second look. The performance difference is vast, and you'll need far more LEDs, which will end up costing you more than going with true high-powered LEDs.

[cocojakes]

I'm working on a new semi custom strip fixture, with 3W LEDs for over a 15 Tall, does this look close to full spectrum? the bolds are channel 1 (white) and the non bold are channel 2 (blue/actinic) and I have dimmers that I can time to do 10% increments on each hour. Does this look acceptable? I've only ever used t5, in which even with that, all I know is I have 2 12,000k and 2 actinics lol but I really want to do this new tank justice, as it will be front and centre in my room, so I have to look at it all the time, and I don't want it to be poorly light.

[oldirty]

Hey, can anyone give me suggestions on a layout for a 75g tank 48" x 18 x 21. Thanks

 

[jedimasterben]

There's lots of examples already in the lighting forum, just start looking through threads, do a little research into what you want for your tank, and start a thread about it. Most of us are happy to help, but you gotta do the first legwork.

[oldirty]

I've been reading through the forums for a a few weeks now just trying to get my head around this. This is what I've initailly come up with.

 

4 clusters of:

8 RB

4 NW

4 TV

2 OCW

 

For a total of 32 RB, 16 NW, 16 TV and 8 OCW. Would this be enough for a 75g and the correct ratio?

[welight]

 

Hi guys!

I am new to your forum.

I am an french aquarist.

I want to make a LED ramp for my aquarium with dimensions 100cmx50cmx50 with 47cm water depth.

I'm a bit lost with all these LED. I'd like to go on 1W LED as the performance is better.

What do you recommend ?

Maybe it I must open a special post for my project ?

I keep mainly SPS.

Excuse me for my english: s

Thank you !

N.

The reference to 1w or 3 watt leds is not relevant to the leds. It relates only to the driver. The only issue you need to be concerned about is the leds max capacity to ensure you dont exceed its rating. Example Cree XML is rated to 3A by Cree but there are many people who run it to 6Amp because they have a heatsink with the thermal capacity to do so. Running XML at 350ma(1 Watt) would make the led highly efficient, another example would be Cree MKR, if you run this at say 300ma or around .8watt, the led will be around 200 lumens per watt. You really need to establish what level of light you need and then translate that back to Led Power requirements